Intersections between Pacific leadership and international development

<p>As part of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations has a long-held commitment to universal primary education for all children. Aid donors in wealthy nations have taken up this call and international development programmes have subsequently been set up in recipient countries where education is not available to everyone. Despite this, an estimated 1.6 million school-aged children in the Pacific region do not currently have access to formal primary schooling. As the timeframe for achieving the Millennium Development Goals draws to a close it is now clear that this aspiration will not be realised in many parts of the Pacific and a generation of children will grow up without a primary education. This raises questions about the design, delivery and management of international aid programmes in the education sector that are often led by people who are not members of the Pacific communities that they seek to assist. This research explores the frustrations felt by recipients of education development programmes in two nations in the Pacific, Tonga and Fiji focusing on the relationship between international development in the Pacific and leadership styles and cultures in the education sector. A key problem that was articulated by aid recipients is that international aid relationships in the Pacific continue to be dominated by the discourses and priorities of donor nations and important opportunities to develop grassroots and local forms of leadership that respond directly and knowledgeably to the rapidly changing needs of Pacific communities have yet to be fully realised. At the same time, new forms of Pacific leadership are emerging as global economies increasingly affect the lives of people living in remote communities and there is a need to respond to these changes because they have a direct impact on schooling for children who live in those areas. Donor nations have not contributed significantly to local leadership development in the education domain and this is an ongoing source of tension for many people because there are so few formally trained indigenous leaders in the education field. The lack of local leaders in this area has an impact of the level of buy-in that Pacific communities give to educational aid projects. This thesis argues that if donor nations are serious about providing universal primary education, leadership development needs to be supported more comprehensively.</p>

Intersections between Pacific leadership and international development

<p>As part of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations has a long-held commitment to universal primary education for all children. Aid donors in wealthy nations have taken up this call and international development programmes have subsequently been set up in recipient countries where education is not available to everyone. Despite this, an estimated 1.6 million school-aged children in the Pacific region do not currently have access to formal primary schooling. As the timeframe for achieving the Millennium Development Goals draws to a close it is now clear that this aspiration will not be realised in many parts of the Pacific and a generation of children will grow up without a primary education. This raises questions about the design, delivery and management of international aid programmes in the education sector that are often led by people who are not members of the Pacific communities that they seek to assist. This research explores the frustrations felt by recipients of education development programmes in two nations in the Pacific, Tonga and Fiji focusing on the relationship between international development in the Pacific and leadership styles and cultures in the education sector. A key problem that was articulated by aid recipients is that international aid relationships in the Pacific continue to be dominated by the discourses and priorities of donor nations and important opportunities to develop grassroots and local forms of leadership that respond directly and knowledgeably to the rapidly changing needs of Pacific communities have yet to be fully realised. At the same time, new forms of Pacific leadership are emerging as global economies increasingly affect the lives of people living in remote communities and there is a need to respond to these changes because they have a direct impact on schooling for children who live in those areas. Donor nations have not contributed significantly to local leadership development in the education domain and this is an ongoing source of tension for many people because there are so few formally trained indigenous leaders in the education field. The lack of local leaders in this area has an impact of the level of buy-in that Pacific communities give to educational aid projects. This thesis argues that if donor nations are serious about providing universal primary education, leadership development needs to be supported more comprehensively.</p>

Progress of IBSA Countries Towards Universal Primary Education: A Comparative Analysis

Free and compulsory primary education remains a priority area in the international policy perspective, starting from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 to the formulation of Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Under the impact of globalization, an impressive expansion in the access to primary education has been observed in recent decades and the global trends in enrolment rates across the developing world have attested this fact. However, many developing countries, such as India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), are still struggling with the goal of quality primary education for all. The IBSA countries are emerging economies and very proactive in addressing past inequalities prevalent in their countries. With the cooperation of international organizations, national policy planning and other initiatives, these countries have performed quite well in the educational attainment. But even today, these countries have not achieved the goal of quality primary education for all. This paper reviews the attainment of free and compulsory primary education in these countries, along with the challenges faced in the achievement of universal primary education. These challenges may hinder the progress of these countries towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal.